The statements in this section may serve as a background to help understand the invention and its application and uses, but may not constitute prior art.
From soda bottles to shopping bags, blister packs to six pack rings, plastics are ubiquitous in our current disposable age. Accompanying the convenience of plastic use is the challenges of plastic waste management due to plastics' non-degradable nature. Every year, thousands of tons of plastic waste are washed ashore. Among those are hundreds of thousands of disposable tampon applicators, so common that they are even given the nickname “beach whistle.” On average, twenty billion pads, tampons, and applicators enter the landfill annually. While pads and tampons may be made biodegradable, disposable plastic tampon applicators do not disintegrate easily.
Furthermore, disposable tampon applicators currently available on the market are mostly made of thin, cheap plastics that have undergone minimal molding and trimming to minimize production cost and reduce manufacturing complexity. Safety and hygiene issues can arise during tampon application as such low-quality disposable tampon applicators may pinch or even slice a user's internal tissues. In addition, no reusable tampon applicators are available today, thus users often resort to modifying single-use disposable applicators to fit washable tampons knitted or crocheted from cotton or other suitable materials, yet protrusions and/or depressions hidden within a disposable applicator often makes it difficult to wash with water or to clean with hygiene wipes after each use.
Therefore, in view of the aforementioned difficulties, there is an unsolved need for reusable tampon applicators, especially those that are safe to use, easy to clean and sustainable, thus helping protect the environment in a socially responsible way.
It is against this background that various embodiments of the present invention were developed.